1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data communicating device and a data communicating method in which time-continuously inputted transmission data is transmitted to another device or discarded in units of a predetermined data amount at intervals of a predetermined time depending on a data processing status of another device connected via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In IEEE1394 audio devices for transferring audio data via a network using interfaces in conformity with the IEE1394 standard, unless the receiving side gives transmission permission to the transmitting side, a device on the transmitting side cannot transfer data in the data transfer operation except for a broadcast data transfer mode in which data is transferred to all other devices.
Assuming a personal computer (PC) to be one IEEE1394 audio device, therefore, when the personal computer (PC) side issues an audio data transfer request but an IEEE1394 audio device on the receiving side does not give transmission permission, the data must be discarded on the personal computer (PC) side.
In conventional data transfer described above, however, the personal computer (PC) handles audio data as one set of packet data, and does not manage the data on the time base. Accordingly, when data transfer is disabled, the personal computer (PC) executes processing to discard all of the data, thus resulting in that data transfer is completed at the time different from the actual reproduction end time of the audio data. Stated otherwise, there has hitherto been a problem that audio data cannot be properly discarded.
In some cases, even when no audio data exists on the personal computer (PC) side, a data transfer request is issued from the IEEE1394 audio device. Conventionally, a dummy packet is sent to the receiving side in reply to the request. However, a certain task is required to reside on the personal computer (PC) side at all times for sending a dummy packet. Stated otherwise, the personal computer (PC) employs a part of limited resources to keep a task residing to execute processing that is not always required. A problem has been hence experienced in that resources cannot be effectively utilized.